Dirty Dancing at Devil's Leap

Starred review from July 31, 2017
Long’s playful third visit to Hellcat Canyon (after Wild at Whiskey Creek), the best of the series so far, reunites Avalon Harwood and Mac Coltrane, estranged since their teenage years by Mac’s cruel words and Avalon’s subsequent flight. Avalon, now well into adulthood and stinging from the treachery of her hipster boyfriend and business partner, Corbin, temporarily abandons her San Francisco gaming company, GradYouAte, to impulsively purchase a house at auction in her hometown of Hellcat Canyon, Calif.—a house where Mac once lived for idyllic summers and which he now desperately wants to own. The ensuing uproarious pranking competition fuels mutual attraction, rekindles lustful romance, and brings old issues into perspective for a couple whose past will inform their satisfying future. Familiar characters enrich the background and tease future volumes. Sparkling banter, appearances of adorable children and animals, and moments of charming hilarity will gratify both new and returning readers. Agent: Steve Axelrod, Axelrod Agency.

August 1, 2017

Returning to California's Hellcat Canyon to reevaluate her situation after she catches her lover-slash-business partner in bed with their intern, tech company CEO Avalon Harwood takes a proactive step and outbids her competition for the old Coltrane mansion at Devil's Leap. But Mac Coltrane, owner of the adjoining property and the mansion's current groundskeeper (as well as Ava's first love), wants his family's home back. And so the battle lines are drawn, with a troop of pint-sized, chattering girls, bleating goats, fragrant cow manure, and ear-splitting music only a few of the creative annoyances they lob at each other as they both play to win. Snappy dialog, spirited rivalry, and laugh-out-loud humor keep the pace swift and the plot on track as this stubborn pair finally come to terms with their pasts. VERDICT An entertaining romance that adds new dimension to this engaging series. Long (Wild at Whiskey Creek) lives in Northern California.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 15, 2017
Memories of teen heartbreak surface when a Silicon Valley businesswoman at a personal and professional crossroad returns to her roots in California hill country--and runs into her first love. Long (Wild at Whiskey Creek, 2016, etc.) brings us back to Hellcat Canyon in this third novel in her contemporary romance series. The town and its residents will provide a familiar backdrop to readers of the previous books, who will place Avalon Harwood as the daughter and sister of recurring characters and invest in her losses and dreams. Chief among them is Avalon's adolescent soul mate, Mac Coltrane, who never loved anyone like he did his childhood frenemy and has felt unmoored all his life since their parting. The son of a rich resident of the town, Mac reinvented himself after the family money vanished but avoids emotional ties. Meeting after a dozen years, the former couple find themselves quarreling over the rightful ownership of his old house and bickering as they skate around the truth of why their love ended so abruptly. Renewing their childhood pattern of smirking competition, they lob sallies at each other through creative revenge tactics, but the game is underlaid by their decadeslong unconsummated sexual tension. As comic scenes alternate with moments of potent memory and sizzling desire, the new relationship unfolds in the manner of a tango. Cheeky repartee, liquid imagery, and quiet reflection on roads not taken show the author's expanding stylistic palette (notwithstanding the cliched allusion to rom-com classic Say Anything, which seems to be epidemic in the genre). For fans of Americana romance and Susan Elizabeth Phillips and those who root for the healing of a bruised heart, especially one that scorned romance or let it go as a childish thing.

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